How to Start a Meditation Practice – Try These 7

What is Meditation and What are the Benefits?

Meditation itself is a generic term, but for our purposes the definition from a UC Irvin paper, meditation is

“A practice where an individual uses a technique-such as mindfulness-to train attention and awareness and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.“

UC Irvin

The benefits of meditation are well documented. The benefits of meditation include:

• Decreased anxiety
• Help fight depression
• Increased stress tolerance
• Improvement in concentration and attention
• Better sleep
• Increased productivity

Even with all these benefits, it can be hard to form a meditation practice. It isn’t easy and we aren’t alone in this struggle. News anchor Dan Harris wrote a whole book on finding his mediation practice after he had a breakdown on live TV.

The book is part biography, focusing on how he tried the conventional stuff to make himself happier; mainly with material items and self-prescribing drugs. They, of course, didn’t work.  Through a decade of searching, he eventually found himself to be 10% happier through his meditation practice.

He shared his story so we don’t wait a decade before we find a meditation that can make us 10% happier as well. Since starting is often the hardest part of forming a habit, below are some tips on how to start a practice.

How to Start a Meditation Practice 

• Find a dedicated time every day: Set aside some dedicated time every day: Set aside a small portion of your day where you can consistently make time for 5 – 15 minutes of meditation. For me, I tried to start my meditation practice in the morning. However, my habit of hitting the snooze button meant I couldn’t get up early enough to meditate before work. So now I meditate before bed. Pick a time that works for you!

• Start with 5 minutes: Most of the research points to 15 minutes as being the ideal length for daily meditation. However, finding the time to start and also for mediating that long is difficult. Instead of going for 15, start at 5 minutes. Build up the practice like any exercise. Expand it longer as you continue to see more benefits. 

• Acknowledge it’s a practice and keep trying: I’ve had many false starts forming a meditation practice. It’s only this year that I started staying consistent. What helped me was the mind shift to seeing it as a practice, and it doesn’t have to be taken seriously. Not every day requires sitting cross-legged on the floor with a straight back and five minutes of laser-focused attention. Lying in a soft bed, listening to “nature sounds to meditate to”, and focusing on breathing counts too.

Types of Meditation Practice

With all the meditation practices available to us, it can be hard to pick one to start. Below are seven of my favorite practices. Try one each for the next seven days and go forward with your favorites!

1. Open Awareness

Sit in a comfortable posture (you can even sit in a chair) and close your eyes. Settle into the awareness of the sensation of your body sitting. Sit and know you’re sitting.

Become aware of the body breathing and follow the breath in and out. Other experiences may arise; sounds, physical sensations, and thoughts. Note them, and then return to noticing.

Move to open awareness. Instead of following the breath, simply be mindful in a relaxed way. Gently keep in mind the question, “what is being known?” as each new experience presents itself. Be open to this flow of experience. When the mind gets scattered, distracted, and lost in thought, gently come back to being aware.

Some free guided meditations are offered by Tara Brach.

2. Be Mindful While Walking

The benefit of this practice is it can be done anywhere you are already walking to.

To begin, notice the impact of your feet touching the ground. You don’t need to look down; aim your attention at the sensation of walking. Really make sure to notice each feeling – you don’t have to name them or think of the muscle groups – just notice the flow between the hardness, softness, lightness, relaxation, and whatever other feelings walking brings to you. Slow down a little and notice how that changes these sensations. If your mind wanders, do your best to refocus on the walk and how it feels.

3. Body Scan for Sleep

Lying in bed 100% counts as meditation.

Start by lying on your back. Rest your arms comfortably at your sides and allow your feet to fall away from each other. To get in a relaxed mindset, take several slow, long breathes in and out. Feeling your stomach and chest rise and then deflate.

Bring your attention to your feet. Where do you feel the tension? Can you release the tension a little? Scrunch up your toes and feet tight and then release.

Move to your ankles; feel the movements and breath in to release tension if possible. Continue to move up the body in a similar fashion, making sure to note the feelings and tensions you might have, and release those tensions as you go along the way.

Continue up until you reach the top of your head. To end this practice, tense your entire body and squeeze for three seconds before relaxing. Feel the tension drift away from your body as you fall asleep.

4. Stress is a Natural Teacher

This practice teaches us to have a sense of friendliness and curiosity towards stress; however, make sure to exercise caution. If you are feeling overly stressed, it may not be the right time to attempt the practice. Come back to it when you are in a calmer state of mind.

For this practice, sit comfortably, and take a couple of deep, full breathes to start. Slowly become aware of yourself. What are you feeling and what are you experiencing? Notice your body and mind. Are you feeling tense or relaxed? Simply take the time to make a mental note of your state; nothing needs to be any different than how it is at this moment.

If you are stressed, bring some wisdom. Remind yourself it is okay to feel this way. It may be unpleasant, but stress is a natural part of life. It isn’t stress that causes our suffering; it’s our resistance that turns it into suffering.

Where are you feeling the stress the strongest in your body? Where is it weakest? What is the cause of this stress? What is another cause of your stress? Why is this situation stressful? Encourage an attitude of curiosity and playfulness.

Coming to challenges this way shifts the experience to a more positive one. Notice this shift in your body and continue to settle into being curious about your present experience, without any feelings of the prior judgment.

5. Transcendental Meditation

This is the well-known technique, even practiced by Ray Dalio, where you repeat a mantra over and over.

To start, sit in a comfortable seated position. Think of your mantra. It can be a word, phrase, or sound. If you are struggling for one, think of what you most need to hear right now in your life. It can be reaffirming words, a single word to help you focus, or a phrase that encourages discipline. Common ones include, “relax” “focus” “I can mediate” “I am present”.

 Focus on that mantra. Let the world fall away. If your mind wanders, come back and focus on your mantra. It is normal to say the mantra while the mind wanders away. If that happens, gently bring your attention back to your mantra. Continue for the allotted time you have for the practice.

6. Calming Place Meditation

Start in an easy seated pose. Think of a location where you are at your happiest. It could your favorite restaurant, a dream vacation, somewhere outside, or even someplace you think you would be happy.

Visualize how that place feels. Is your skin warmed by the sun or cooled by A/C? How does it feel, smell, and look like? Picture yourself happily there. Bring a smile to your face.

Focus on being present in that location and fully engrossed in the experience. Maybe a fish jumps from the river or a waiter brings you a nice cup of coffee. How does it feel? Continue to breathe, smile, and experience it.

This meditation is useful for training us to be present in the daily moments of life that we enjoy most. This helps us learn to savor life when we are experiencing our day to day journey.

7. Love and Kindness Meditation (aka known as Metta)

This practice cultivates love, compassion, and altruistic feelings toward yourself and others. The main idea is to picture a series of people and send them good wishes. It is another way to express gratitude.

Start with yourself. Visualize yourself and repeat the following phrases: “May I be happy, May I be healthy, May I be safe, May I live with ease.” Do this slowly and let the sentiment take effect.

You aren’t forcing these, just offering them up, like a drink to a house guest. This is practicing the feeling of kindness. This meditation takes some getting used to. Feelings of anger, sadness, guilt, or numbness may begin to creep in. Thoughts like, “this is stupid” or “I don’t deserve the kindness” are completely fine! Just keep working and being patient. Think of self-kindness as a muscle, it has to be worked out to get strong.

Then move onto others in the following categories: a benefactor (a teacher, mentor, relative), a close friend (pets count too), a neutral person (someone you see or know but don’t interact with), a difficult person, and finally “all beings”.

It can be a lot to tackle at first. Start with just one category and work your way down the list.

Main Take-Aways:

• Building a meditation practice can bring numerous benefits
• To start your practice: pick the same time every day to meditate, start with five minutes, and have fun with it!
• There are several different meditation practices, try a variety to find out personal favorites

Action item

• Pick a time every day this week to practice meditating for five minutes. Pick a different meditation practice to do every day. At the end of the week, ask yourself how you feel and what benefits you notice after one week. Continue this practice forward for a month utilizing your personal favorites!